Author: marshallsknowledge

Billy Wesley Monk was a young man who was brutally raised by an uncaring mother in a home of constant replaceable stepfathers who subjected him to beatings and torture. How would you expect him to turn out?

I was a senior prosecutor at the time and was about 33 years old, but a Calendar deputy charged with supervising two other deputy DAs, reviewed all cases in my trial department, and designated me to deal with those cases assigned to my court, and to try the heavy cases assigned there.  The decision whether to seek the Death Penalty, in those cases where that could be the punishment, was left up to me.  That decision has been dramatically changed today, and the decision is not let to one person who may be prone to seek the death penalty, the arbitrariness has been eliminated, and the decision is now in the hands of senior prosecutors as a committee.

Billy Monk never to my knowledge killed anyone. In 1960, the penalty for kidnapping for the purpose of robbery with bodily injury was either death, or life without parole.

On March 14, 1960, Mrs. Rose S. was returning to her home from shopping, when she was accosted by Monk in the parking lot of a shopping center when she came upon Monk who forced her at gunpoint to enter his car, threw her wallet containing about $10.00 into the back of his car after moving her a short distance. He made her get in, telling her “we’re not through yet.” After driving her a distance, she managed to throw herself out of the car while the car was still moving and escaped, but suffered injuries of bleeding, and she was hospitalized for a short period

On April 19, 1960, Monk by way of a ruse, first dismantled Mrs. Katherine S. car lights, and then offered to drive her and her six-year-old boy to her home. After approaching the home he told her to disrobe and when she resisted, he smashed her face to the extent it looked like an eggplant and was swollen, plus he gouged her with a screw driver and drove her about eight miles from the place of abduction to a shack in the San Fernando Valley, forced her to orally copulate him until she passed out for lack of air, became unconscious, and was awakened by his touching her private parts, and then forcefully raped her all while her little boy was covered with her blood. When  Monk was satisfied, he drove her back to the area of her residence, but before he dumped her out, he had her give him all her money.

Monk was subsequently arrested and charged with multiple counts of kidnapping for the purpose of robbery with bodily injury, two counts of robbery and one count of forcible rape, one count of forcible oral copulation and two counts of attempted rape of the victim.  Monk pled not guilty, and not guilty by reason of insanity. The case was assigned to me for trial and here it traveled a strange path until it was finished.

The way it worked is if the Court you are assigned is tied up in trial, then the case can and does go out to an open Court.  My court was in trial, so we were sent to Judge Mark Brandler, whom I mentioned earlier. It was my choice to ask for the death penalty, and I thought it was deserved for what Monk had done to the victim;  her life was just taken from her, resulting in divorce, the child was still screaming with nightmares. In other words, Monk’s conduct destroyed her life as she knew it, made it a living hell.  The investigators from the LA sheriff’s Office did not want the death penalty but it was my shot.

The defense attorney was Deputy Public Defender James Nunnelly, an experienced attorney with plenty of serious cases assigned to him. Well, the first thing he did, which astonished me, was to have his client waive a jury trial.  I could not for the life of me understand why he would recommend a jury waiver in front of one of the toughest judges in LA County.  In order to waive a jury and go by way of Court Trial, both the prosecution and the defense just waive trial by jury and go by way of Court Trial.  I did something I don’t think has been done before or since. That is, I questioned the judge as if he was a juror to make sure he would be willing to render a death verdict even though no one was killed, and he said without hesitation he would if appropriate. So I agreed to go by Court Trial as well. Why I was astonished was because I believed once a jury is gone to the jury room, instead of one decision the jury of twelve people all have to agree to the sentence which is not so easy as a judge trial.  Also, in death cases, there is an automatic appeal and any error is magnified to make sure the jury did not vote with inadmissible evidence.  In a Court trial, generally the appellate courts ignore small errors on the basis an experienced judge would ignore any error in the trial leading to an affirming of the verdict.

The trial was routine with no real problems, except Monk did not take a liking to me, and actually tried to attack me after he testified and came around the  corner where I was sitting, made an unpleasant comment to me, which I returned, and when he came at me, the bailiff,  a rather huge human being, had him down very quickly.  That outburst in a jury trial would have been an issue but was not even raised later.

Long story short, evidence was presented on the issue of guilt and we submitted our reports and Monk was found sane. The judge found him guilty of all counts except one of the attempted rape counts and after motions for new trial and reduction of sentence, both denied, Monk was sentenced to death.

As mentioned earlier, there is an automatic appeal in death cases to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, in an unanimous opinion, affirmed the verdict and sentence. You can read the opinion by googling People v Billy Wesley Monk 56 Cal 2nd 288.

Once the Court remands the case, the next step was to prepare a death warrant signed by the judge ordering the Warden of the State Prison at San Quentin where the Gas Chamber is located to set a date and execute the condemned prisoner, which was done.

Before any execution, the Governor of the State of California has the power to commute the sentence, and in Monk’s case that would then mean life without parole.Life without parole can be altered by a governor commuting a sentence or a change in a law or even it is not unknown for prisoners to escape.

The Governor at the time was Edmund G.(Pat) Brown, father of the State’s present  Governor, Jerry Brown.

Supposedly, “Pat” Brown was unavailable and had assigned the hearing to his then Clemency Secretary, Arthur Alarcon.  Arthur was my boss during a stint in the Santa Monica Branch Office where I was a trial Deputy and Art was the Calendar deputy.  When I first entered the LADA’s Office, Art had written the Treatise used by every DA in every County in California, which was on search and seizure due to a new case which excluded evidence obtained unlawfully.a rule of evidence only. He had traveled an upward roll since, from a top DA to Clemency Secretary to Executive Secretary to Judge of the Municipal Court to Federal District Court ending one step before the US Supreme Court to Justice of the 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals until his recent passage last year.  While on the Circuit Court, he and a Law Student at my Alma Mater, Loyola Law School, did a research and study project recommending the abolition of the Death penalty, concluding it was not enforced, mostly (but I think not inappropriate.) Should add I think the study also claimed it was arbitrary.  He did not take that position while Clemency secretary.

Well the hearing was going to be held in a mansion in the ritzy neighborhood in LA called Hancock Park (it’s still elegant and ritzy) I arrived and, to my surprise, Governor “Pat” Brown was in attendance.  Again I was dumbfounded by the defense presentation. First James Nunnelly, the trial attorney, together with Malcolm Mackey, the appellate lawyer, who himself ended up as a Superior Court judge later argued on behalf of Monk and boy did they start off wrong.  The first thing they said to the Governor was that this case was just a little Chessman Case.

Carol Chessman was known as the Red Light Bandit.  By using a false red spot light, he and his partner would accost couples on Mulholland Drive, a lover’s Lane area in the Hollywood hills, kidnap by moving the victims from one place to another, rape the women and rob them.  Chessman, after trials, motions, writs and demonstrations was convicted of kidnapping for robbery with injury and sentenced to death. I prepared the death warrant and was in Sausalito at Sally Stanford’s Cafe, a restaurant run by a former madam who stood vigil in opposition at San Quentin the night of the execution. Her place was the Valhalla at the time when Chessman was executed.  But the point is, the Chessman case was a political liability for Pat Brown who was opposed to the Death Penalty but claimed to have to enforce it in spite of a lot of opposition.

Let me tell you, the Governor’s face got brick red when the defense team said the Monk case was a little Chessman case.  The defense followed up with the religious “tactic” telling the governor the victim Katherine S was Catholic and did not believe in the death penalty, hitting at Pat Brown’s religion.

One should always know the facts before spouting off.  Art Alarcon then produced a letter from Katherine S relating how her life basically was taken from her by Monk, together with how her son cannot cope with the horror and how her marriage dissolved as a result of Monk’s conduct, and yes she thought execution was proper.

The Governor then turned to me and said “Isn’t this just a rape case where the penalty is not death?” and my response was “Governor, if this was just a rape case we would not be here” I then laid out the facts and that ended the hearing.

Clemency was denied and Monk, without any further proceedings, had a death date set and he was executed without any stays, without any writs, without any federal hearings, just one two three and that was it.

Today with the same statute, the basis of the conviction does not carry the Death Penalty. Kidnapping for robbery requires the robbery to be an integral part of the kidnapping, not as an afterthought, and maybe without a jury waiver and a presentation of Monk’s life a jury would not have sentenced him to death.  Maybe with another set of lawyers he might not have been executed.  I have often wondered what would have been the result.  Don’t get me wrong, Monk’s conduct in destroying the rest of the victim’s life and in effect caused a living death deserved the extreme penalty.  I just would have like to have seen a stronger presentation.

(I mentioned Charles Lindberg earlier,. The Lindberg baby was kidnapped for ransom and Federal Laws were enacted setting out Capitol Punishment of kidnap ransom.  The California statute like many was known as the “The Little Lindberg Law.”  Later, I had a murder case where the defendant told the victim “we told you we would let you go, but have you ever heard of the Little Lindberg Law?”and then shot the victim in the face  That case will be discussed later.

(enough heavy stuff, talk to you later)

Marshall

Back to Utah. Well when arriving in Court Wednesday, the present case was dismissed, but instead of it going away, the prosecutor had re-charged the defendants and new dates were set. More trips to Salt Lake, but the case was finally settled with dispositions by plea for the several defendants. My guy got a great deal, but the main man, my client’s brother, got hammered. The judge must have liked me, as he invited me into his chambers afterwards for some coffee (looks like I was on the second level of approval, as I was told that “top-tier” got a shot of Wild Turkey.)  Got to see a hockey game in Salt Lake during the course of the proceedings and also a professional basketball game and did lots of skiing.

LET’S ADDRESS THE DEATH PENALTY.

The presidential election is coming up next month, including lots of State and local propositions.  Included in one is the elimination of the Death Penalty and in another proposition it’s keeping the Death penalty but tightening up the rules for attacking a Death penalty conviction to make it quicker to move to an execution.

My personal experience involves several cases both as a prosecutor and defense attorney. I will address both as this blog progresses  I will state at this time I am ambivalent on the subject and there are good arguments for both positions.

My first experience with a Capital Punishment case was in November of 1959 when I was just 32 years old, At the time, I was the third level DA in Department 101 of The Superior Court My boss was the assistant Chief Trial Attorney in a Court of three prosecutors. My Boss, Cliff Crail was a long-time DA as were a whole bunch of the senior DAs. The best job for new lawyers during the Depression of the 30s was government jobs protected by Civil Service Laws. The old timers were the best of the best and as straight-shooters as anyone could find. They were super knowledgeable and great role models.  We learned from them the awesome responsibility of prosecution and the non-abuse discretion in charging someone with a crime  Anyway, this was at the time of my second stint in the trial department coming from an assignment in the Santa Monica Branch Office.

Well, Darrell Kemp was indicted by the Grand Jury with 5 Counts as follows: One Count of premeditated murder in the course of the commission of forcible rape of Nurse Marjorie Hipperson committed on June 10, 1957; The rape of Hellen Shelton on June 15, 1959 as well as the rape by force and rape by threat of force, and the forcible rape of Lila Sherman on May 12 1959. and set for trial on November 19, 1959, before Judge Herbert Walker in Dept. 101 at the Hall of Justice.

Cliff Crail was to try the case and I was assigned to assist, which meant to carry Cliff’s briefcase and see to it all of the witnesses were in order. Then a case broke which had  coverage a lot like the OJ. Simpson case:

Dr. Bernard Finch fell for his office nurse and, rather than just get a divorce, he and his nurse, Carol Tregoff, apparently conspired to kill Dr. Bernie’s wife. A sloppy job with all of the overtones of a cheap novel.

Anyway the Office wanted Cliff and another senior Deputy Fred Wichello to prosecute Dr. Bernie and his true love, Carol. They had to have a special courtroom to accommodate the Press and spectators.  If you want to read the facts, Google People v Finch/Trgoff at 213 Cal App 2nd 752. (it took three trials to finally get the bad guy and girl)

Well, that left the Kemp case sort of in limbo wouldn’t you say.  Cliff and one of my earlier bosses, Joe Carr, thought I could do the job on my own even though LAPD wanted a more experienced prosecutor; it was going to be my job to prosecute Kemp.

For the facts, Google People v Darrell Kep 55 Cal 2nd 458.

The Kemp trial was in three phases, first guilt and if the Jury returned a verdict of Guilty to the murder charge in the 1st degree, then the next phase due to a plea of not-guilty by reason of insanity, and if the jury finds the guy sane at the time of the crime, then California had instituted a new law where the jury then decides whether the defendant should get either Death or Life imprisonment.  The Kemp case was the second trial in California with the three-phase trial (in law, it is known as bifurcated trials.

In the beginning, Kemp claimed through his attorney he was not presently sane to the extent he was incapable due to a mental condition to know what was going on and could not cooperate with his attorney.  After extensive hearing on that issue with psychiatrists testifying at cross conclusion, the Court found Kemp sane so we then proceeded to the guilt phase.

A short fact summary is Kemp crawled through the window of Marjorie’s window, attacked her violently, bruising parts of her body as she must have resisted,tied her with her own stockings, shoved a dishrag into her mouth to prevent a call for help, forcefully penetrated her private parts and then strangled her to death. She was in her 30s,  a nurse engaged to a young intern, but her future life was stolen from her. There was no direct evidence connecting Kemp to the crime, but his fingerprints were found on the entry window sill as well as his palm print found on the wall next to her body and someone had left a note slipped under a neighbor’s door stating the writer had been watching the neighbor and inquired if the neighbor was interested in getting together. (the neighbor reported to the police and also had kept the note) The other two charged rapes occurred in Griffith Park, a large expanse of park property located in North Central Los Angeles near Dodger Stadium where in one case posing as a park attendant he told the victim he would give her a ride, as she was waiting for a bus, but instead of driving out of the Park, he lured her to a remote area by a steep cliff and after walking to a secluded area threatened to throw her down the hill unless she succumbed to a sex act.  Based on the threat, she complied. And, the third after posing as a Park attendant forcefully stopped her vehicle, grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to a hidden area, bashed her with a rock  rendering her unconscious, but first telling her he was going to kill her like he did to Hipperson, left her for dead. He started to leave, the victim regained consciousness, ran out, saw another car approaching, screamed for the car to stop Kemp, but he got away, but not before the victim was able to get partial plate numbers.  Based on that, a car matching the description was spotted by a LAPD Officer, detained and Kemp the driver was arrested, interrogated and subsequently charged.

There is a lot of stuff left but after a lengthy trial, Kemp was found guilty of Murder 1st and sentenced to death.

Never able to execute Kemp, because every time I would draft a death warrant to the Warden at San Quentin, Kemp would, I believe, pretend insanity until the Death Penalty was declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court as then written in California and then, surprise surprise, Kemp became very permanently sane.  The alternative to Death in California is Life Without Parole, but not for Kemp.  Guess what? You got it, he was eventually paroled, moved to Texas and got caught trying to attack another young lady and again tied her up with her own stocking after invading her residence, but she must have fought back as he was convicted of the rape, sent to a Texas prison.

I bet you thought that was the end-but no.

A woman was murdered in Northern California and her body was found in a remote area on the East Bay area city of Lafayette.  Until DNA became the connector between a person and evidence, that crime had not been solved. Now there was a match between trace evidence on this East Bay victim and Darrell Kemp.

Kemp was a few years back extradited to Contra County Court, tried for the murder, convicted and now resides on Death Row at San Quentin State Prison.

Back to discussion of the Death Penalty.  One of the arguments put forth by opponents of the death penalty is it is no deterrent.  In some cases of crazy nuts acting on impulse, that might well be true.  But in the case of Darrell Kemp, if he had been executed rather than paroled, that Texas young lady would not have been attacked and certainly the young lady found murdered in the East Bay would still be alive, living her life, possibly married, possibly having children and possibly enjoying those things we all expect throughout one’s life, and, of course the parents, family and friends and joys would still be with her and them.

In addition, my former partner, Byron McMillan’s dad was an assembly man from, would you believe, the Borscht Belt (Beverly /Fairfax in LA)  and would author a bill every two years or so to abolish the Death Penalty in California and I as a DA was assigned to debate the issue to various organizations through LA opposed by an ACLU representative.  I had solid evidence of the deterrent effect through several different police reports where the perpetrator for robberies was armed with either a fake, unloaded or dismantled hand gun. When asked why such a unworkable weapon, the response was always,”I don’t want to accidentally or any other way get into a position to kill someone and face “The Pill.”  (in those days, execution was in the gas chamber by dropping a pill of potassium cyanide.)  So at least in those cases the Penalty is and was deterrent

I am not done with this conversation about the penalty.  Too many innocent people have been sentenced to Death throughout the Country, too many corrupt DAs, too many incompetent attorneys, some I have witnessed in my cases.  So, the issue is still an open question in my mind.  We will face the issue later, as I am fading out at this time.

Bye,

Marshall

After reviewing earlier blogs, I think a different format may be in order. Rather than just writing from beginning forward, I find at night a million thoughts come to mind, and not necessarily in a lineal order.  So, as events come to my mind, I will write them.  Plus, probably not as stuffy. So, here goes:

Yesterday I told Maxine (wife, remember?) that as a defense lawyer in Orange County, I had a couple of cases before Federal Judges who were well-known for odd behavior. This is my experience before Judge Willis Ritter, Federal District Judge in the Utah district.

While a pretty successful defense attorney, one of the local judges, an ex-marine and Southern Boy, called me and asked if I would represent the son of one of his boyhood friends who had a problem in LA, the Malibu Area, and of course I said “sure.” The problem was the kid was caught trying to sell Hashish,and as you may know, it is a strong form of cannabis from the marijuana plant.  In those days, possession of even the smallest amount of cannabis (marijuana) was a straight felony punishable by State Prison. (marijuana was known as “The Devil’s Weed” a hallucinogenic- today they are thinking in California of making the substance a legal product and medical Marijuana is perfectly legal, and possession for other purposes makes it an infraction punishable by a small fine.) How things have changed. Anyway, I took the Malibu case, and was successful through a suppression motion to get the case dismissed.  I thought that would end it, but later, I got a call from some guy in Salt Lake City telling me he, his younger brother and a couple of other guys were charged by way of a Grand Jury indictment with importation and possession for sale of a large amount of marijuana, and from information from the Malibu client, one of his distributors, I knew what I was doing, and they would like me to represent his younger brother. We made arrangements for me to fly to Salt Lake and discuss the case.  He agreed to pay for my trip, payment for my time, and, if things worked out, to hire me. I agreed. Flew to Salt Lake,  met with the potential clients quoted a hefty retainer which was agreed to.  Then the guy reaches into his pocket, pulled out a large roll of bills and peeled $10,000.00 and barely dented the roll. Damn, I was scared to death to walk around with that kind of cash, but managed.

So, next appearance is in the Federal District Court in Salt Lake. We go before a commissioner for arraignment, enter pleas of not guilty and are informed the Court will let you know when the trial is to begin. What? that isn’t the way it is done in California. By the way, one has to ask to be admitted to the Utah District Court and have a local lawyer as co-counsel. I hired the judge’s old lawyer. (not a bad idea, yes?) So you waited until you are notified, and in this case, I got a call on a Friday telling me the judge will call the case the following Monday. So much for advance notice

 

so, I make arrangements to fly to Salt Lake, get a hotel room, take my paper work and stuff and appear Monday morning. Out of the judge’s chambers comes this short, stout barrel of a man with an enormous head. The clerk calls the Calendar of cases set for trial that morning; about three or four were going to be tried immediately, and the Judge says :”Well see the rest of you fellers Wednesday.”  One of the local attorneys representing one of the defendants in the conspiracy charge pipes up and says “Judge, we got this lawyer from California, can’t we start earlier? The judge says “where is this feller from California?” I raised my hand, and the Judge gruffly tells me to come forward to the judge’s bench, which I do.  He stares at me for several minutes and finally says “what do you want? I say, “I am here at your convenience, and whatever you want is OK with me.” The judge says “see everyone Wednesday.”

The judge had some idiosyncrasies, such as the Court was located in the Post Office Building and one day the Postal people were making too much noise, so he shut down the whole Post Office.  “I asked my co defendant’s lawyers :why was he staring at me and was told he was looking at my eyes and if they were totally brown or black that would be the “Mark of Cain,”  Luckily I have some green with the brown. Another Ritter story which I observed first hand was when there was some commotion in the back of the courtroom; he told the US Marshall to arrest that “long hair” in the back, and the marshal knowing the judge could not see very well to the area of the noise, did his duty and took the young lady into custody.  It worked out and she was released.

The judge was what is known as a “Jack Mormon-” That is, he no longer followed the tenets of The Church of the Latter Day Saints, drank Wild Turkey and coffee and gave the Church a hard time. You get the idea; he was different.  However he was no ignoramus, to the contrary, he previously was a full professor of Law at the University of Utah Law School before being appointed to the Bench and as a classmate of one of the most scholarly California Supreme Court justices, Roger Traynor.  Actually he knew well in advance what was going to be the result of our present case before him.

The facts were simple: the head guy, my client’s brother, managed to import tons of “weed” hidden in secret sections of campers from Mexico and had a distribution organization of lesser sites throughout the US,  with headquarters in Salt Lake, a central area to work out of throughout the United States.

So, what to do from Monday to Wednesday?  I had a case in Orange County involving two brothers who basically were defrauding some people who could not afford it by having them sign without reading a home reconstruction contract based and alleged false representations.  I had one brother and an attorney from Oakland, Bob Brodie, was hired by the Oakland firm to represent the other brother. Joe Dickerson was the prosecutor. One day in the Orange County Judge’s Chambers there was an argument about some detail, and the Oakland Attorney, Bob Brodie, and Joe got into an argument that got heated.  I had been raising issues, and the Judge Herbie Herlands, would make Joe go and answer all the junk I was putting forth, and I guess, it got to Joe, who then challenged me to fight, I accepted, and the judge went ballistic, put on his robe in chambers, called in the court reporter and things calmed down. In Orange County in those days there was a pretty good relationship between the Bench and the prosecution and defense attorneys.  So call it a “good old boys” network if you will. We could fight like hell in Court and at the end of the day meet at the local “watering hole” known as the “Plank House,” unwind from the day before going home. Today I got a call from Joe Dickerson, now quite a bit older, thanking me for recommending a neurosurgeon for his lower back disc injury. In other words, we liked each other and were honest and could trust each other as professionals and our word was good.  Not like today’s practice where things are more “arms length.”  I miss it.

Well, after the brothers’ case which we may visit later, Brodie was not welcome back to his Oakland firm. I suspect they did not to pay him for trial, figuring they would send him down to OC and just plead out his client.  I liked Bob. He was highly educated with a degree from the University of British Columbia, and was sent by the Canadian Unions to University of Caliornia Berkeley where he got a Master’s Degree in economics and then his Law Degree from Berel Law School known then as “Boalt Hall”  So I invited him to come with me, and hired him as an associate in my firm. Well Bob was about the best snow skier I have ever met  He wanted me to take up the sport, but at this time, I was in my early 50s and not thrilled with the idea. Now I have these few days before trial in Utah, so I drive up to a Ski Lift area known as Brighton located in one of the three  canyons in the Wasatch mountains, get an Austrian Ski Instructor, get boots (in those days the ski boots were leather, and I got  Fisher skiis. The instructor said “you will follow me.” I tried, but was falling all over the place; my feet had no circulation, and I told the instructor to bring me back to the lodge as I was not happy.  He loosened the laces on my boots, blood flowed and the pain left, showed me how to snow plow and I fell in love with the sport.

During the course of the case I had several occasions where I returned and learned more about skiing at another nearby resort, Park City, which I visited with my two kids.

Well, I had to go back to Court the following Wednesday, and what happened is another story which we will visit on the next blog.

Marshall

So, it’s time to get back to work. I am 29 years old, newly married, living in a studio apt. on Oakhurst Drive in Beverly Hills near Santa Monica Blvd. and my father-in-law gave me the choice of a large wedding or a car.  Took the car, a neat 1956 Chevy. Wife got a job as a secretary/receptionist. We are set to go.

First assignment “Preliminary Hearings” located in the block-like building, downtown LA, 6th floor.where I was asked to report. There were about 5 to 6 of us assigned and I was the last one, the new green prosecutor.  At the time, the whole office consisted of about 56 deputy DA of various ranks, mine was Deputy DA grade One, the lowest ranking, and in 1956 advancement took years before getting to the trial department on the 6th floor.  Top grades took a long time. You could not do felony trials at that grade, and could expect to do the small stuff for everyone in the whole Office.My boss was Floree Linn, the only female DA. She was hired and given special consideration due to her father, a retired Deputy DA. ( Times eventually changed, and now one may walk into a courtroom and see a female judge, clerk, bailiff and DA, as well as female elected DAs heading various County DA Offices including LA San Diego, Alameda, Marin and other Counties. But, this was 1956, a while ago)

They did not baby you.  Told me I would be in Court the next day putting on preliminary Hearings which required witnesses, evidence and a minimum of proof.  As explained earlier, before an accused can be prosecuted on a felony charge, there must be a minimum showing that a crime was committed  and the Defendant did it.  As an example, a guy is charged with robbery- the DA has to show for a preliminary Hearing- 1st, what is known as the Corpus Delecti which translates to the body of the crime.  I would bet if you were not trained in Law School, you would think Corpus Delecti meant “Dead Body” Not so. Robbery is defined as Theft (Larceny) by force or threat of force. So the Corpus of the crime would be evidence someone used force (mugging) or threat of force (got a gun give me your money) Once that is shown: ie, the required force and the taking of money, laptop, whatever, as long as it is property, then connect the accused by some evidence such as eye witness identification, fingerprints, smoking gun or whatever.  Every crime has its elements, and to prosecute they have to be shown. Another obvious connector would be a confession or admission but a confession or admission or any statements cannot be at the time I was in the LA DA’s Office without first establishing the Corpus, otherwise a corrupt DA or Police Officer could tag a guy or gal by a false confession.  The rule is protective.

Now I just arrived to the office section for Prelims (that is how the hearings were referred as, given a couple of books written by Judge Fricke who put out separate books on Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Criminal Evidence which were the Bibles for all criminal lawyers, and judges.  They contained everything you needed to know.  Today there are tomes and volumes and other writings regarding criminal law and procedure, but when I first started as a DA the vast changes in criminal law had not occurred except the exclusionary rule.  What is the exclusionary rule you ask? It is evidence cannot be used that was obtained by an unlawful search or seizure.  At the time I started, that rule was not even a Constitutional rule but a rule of California Courts based on the Search of a bookie’s house where the cops entered without a warrant or probable cause to believe a crime was being committed and tore the place apart.

Anyway, I was given two or three cases consisting of the charges, police reports and a factual summary. One I remember was a check forgery case. Nothing serious, studied the cases reviewed the law set out in “Fricke” and prepared.

Next day to Court.  The Municipal judges were terrors. They would glare at you if you were a newbie and generally make your life as miserable as they can.  I remember clearly putting on a case in front of Judge Mark Brandler, who was a former DA claiming he never lost a case. ( I say, any lawyer saying he/she never lost a case either is exaggerating or hasn’t tried any and cherry picked their cases avoiding by plea or disposition or hasn’t tried very many cases.)  So I am asking questions with my head buried in the file and I hear objection sustained.  Did not hear an objection, so I rephrased my question and got the same response “objection sustained.”  I rephrased again and also watched the defense lawyer to see if I was going to face another objection.  The defense lawyer’s lips did not move, but Judge Brandler’s did:”objection sustained .”I was smart enough not to challenge the judge, explained I was new, which he already knew, and asked for guidance, which he happily gave, and my lesson was over.  Later in my career, after Judge Brandler was elevated to the Superior Court, he sentenced three different defendants to Death that I had prosecuted and he was the presiding judge.

I will discuss those cases and my defense death penalty cases later in this blog, but maybe tomorrow I will blog a discussion on the pros and cons of the Death Penalty having been on both sides of the issue, and this being an election year the strengthening of the Death Penalty to hurry up case resolutions or the alternative of the elimination of the penalty altogether.

Nothing exciting occurred in my short stay in the Preliminary Hearing Department before I was transferred to the East LA Area Office to fill in a vacancy there.

Another good thing about the Prelim Dept. was the chance to learn of the various crimes, make a good record as all the proceedings were recorded and the added chance to go on the County run.

What is the County run you ask? The area Office at Lancaster which included not only the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, but the entire vast area of high desert and the eastern portion of the Tehachapi Mountains did not have a separate Office, so deputies would be asked to go out there at 55 cents per mile which helped one’s income and put on cases including misdemeanor trials. Got to try my first criminal trial out there which I will start in my next blog tomorrow or when I get at it.

That’s enough for now.

BTW, no more Marshall Schulman, but just plain Marshall.

By now, Marshall

Well, after the exams for a spot in the DA’s Office, I received a call from George Kemp, Chief Assistant DA, informing me I not only passed, but was the number one on the exam, but there was a but.  He explained there were several applicants, and some of them were already working temporarily for the DA’s Office.  They would like me to waive my employment to allow one of them to come up the list of several applicants, and as soon as there was another opening, I would be hired. A “no brainer.”  If I said no, that would show I was not a team player and a bad start to a new career.  Besides, if they did not keep their promise, I would not want to work for them anyway.  The bottom line is they of course kept their promise; I was hired later and had a great career as a prosecutor.

How does prosecution work in LA?  OK, first in California, the chief prosecutor of crimes is the State Attorney General.  Crimes are prosecution in the name of “The People of the State of California vs the named Defendant and the titles look like “People of the State of California vs. John Doe Defendant. The Attorney General. a State elected Office, under California Law may and does delegate the power to prosecute to the elected District Attorney in each separate California County as the prosecutor of all felonies, i.e. those crimes designated with a State Prison penalty as well as misdemeanors.  City attorneys can and often do if they have the staff, prosecute misdemeanors, those non State Prison crimes committed in their cities. So, like my last writing, one can easily see that in the prosecution part of the criminal justice system there are various layers of prosecutors,and also layers of prosecutors in the State System, and that is true for most states.  Don’t forget the Federal Government has their own prosecutors called US Attorneys for designated judicial districts, such as in California,  there are US Attorneys appointed by the then President of the US during the term of office all under the direction of the Attorney General of the US.  The California Districts are: the Southern district, covering crimes committed in San Diego, Imperial, and various cities up to the Central District, which consists of LA, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange County up to the LA line.  The Central includes LA County, Ventura, Santa Barbara… And then there is the Eastern District which includes the San Joaquin Valley all the way up North and in the middle of California, and then the Northern district mainly in San Francisco, but also the Bay Area and counties Northward as well.

So you get the general idea; there is a lot of overlap between the various entities and jurisdictions and venues.  It works.

The LA DA’s Office in 1956 consisted of approximately 60 Deputy DAs, plus a supporting staff of investigators, stenographers and others. The way it works is there is one District attorney, and at the time I came aboard, it was Ernie Roll. He is elected.  There were two political positions known as The Chief Assistant District Attorney and the Assistant District Attorney.  The DA was responsible for the prosecution of Felonies, and, where needed in area and Branch Offices, misdemeanors as well as budget, payroll and all the things required of management.  The actual trial attorneys were designated as Deputy District Attorneys in all Counties except San Francisco where the DA set up allowed the SF DA to hire and fire prosecutors at will and so the SF prosecutors were designated as Assistant District Attorneys, a political position. Deputy means Amanuensis, or acting in the name of the elected DA.  What it means, I, as a deputy  DA, is acting on behalf of the DA as if the DA was directly prosecuting the named defendant.

 

The main DA’s Office in LA was located in an all-purpose 9 story building covering one city block. When I say “all purpose,” I mean the  following: In the basement was the Coroner’s, with its medical examiners cutting up dead bodies to determine causes of death, natural, homicide or undetermined, or also suicidal.  Sometimes, in those days, there would be a coroner’s jury to confirm the doctor’s findings ( in my duties I participated in coroner’s juries.  The jury generally consisted of questionable vagrants who could collect enough money to buy their next bottle) There was also in the basement for the LA County sheriff (another elected position with a slew of deputies) to store abandoned property. (once a year there would be an auction and I picked up a couple of bicycles that way) The main floor, or lobby, was the entrance, with a bank of elevators that rarely worked on time with honest to God elevator operators. The 2nd and third floor housed the Public Defender and his/her deputies.  The Public Defender in every county except San Francisco is appointed by the County Governing Body known as The Board of Supervisors.  The Board is responsible for the Public Defender’s budget, so the PD is somewhat at the Board’s discretion when it comes to salaries, effort and representation.  San Francisco is set up where the Public Defender is elected and as a result is not beholden to or cannot be fired by its Board of Supervisors, a much better system where the Public Defender can vigorously defend an accused. (later in my career, I was appointed by the Orange county Board of Supervisors to investigate the Orange County Public Defender for action taken in the defense of a prospective indigent defendant who was arrested out of State on a murder warrant and the PD went to the State and undertook representation before the local police could interview the suspect.  As a result, after my legal research, the Public Defender not only was correct, but had a duty to provide immediate representation.  (From my report, the Orange County Board drafted a certificate of Commendation for my work.) I think the 4th floor was the Court Clerk’s Office where the Court files and other things such as search warrant returns were kept and staffed be Court Clerks. The 5th and 6th floor belonged to the DA’s Office. The 5th floor deputies handled filings and preliminary hearings and the 6th floor, the glory floor where we all wanted to be, consisted of the DA and his assistant DA’s office and the glamorous trial department.

Above, on the 7th floor were the municipal courts where the judges acted as magistrates (what is a magistrate? Before anyone can be prosecuted for a serious crime, the facts of the case must be presented to a Grand Jury. Why? Because the Constitution says so.) Remember the Constitution requires no person can be prosecuted unless facts have been brought before a grand Jury showing that a crime was committed and the accused did it.  The proof need be only to show there is probable cause to go forward by way of indictment and prevents the government to force a person to be arrested and prosecuted at the whim of the government.  This probable cause requirement applies to the State prosecution as well. There is another and probably more fair method of getting a prosecution to go forward by way of a preliminary hearing where facts in open proceedings are presented to a person known not as a judge but a magistrate. However by statute defining a magistrate in California any judge of any Court, Municipal, Superior, Appellate Justice or Supreme Court Justice can be a magistrate. So, the way it works out is on the 7th floor a bunch of municipal court judges sit as magistrates deciding whether the charges go forward or not. (we will get to detail later) On the 8th floor are the trial courts and on the 9th floor is the County Jail which houses the inmates who can’t afford bail.

OK Of course I agreed to waive my so called right to go in to the office when asked, but at that time I was still unmarried and living with my mother, Gertrude, in a unit on Sherbourne Drive in Los Angeles near Pico and Robertson.  By then, my parents were divorced and events leading up to that time are a story, and a sad one which I may or may not discuss  So I want to think about it as it not going to be a pleasant story.

Talk to you later

Marshall Schulman

1956 for me was memorable. Left private practice, became a Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County, met my future wife in March, and got married in December (still together going on 60 years) and new and exciting things to encounter.

LA County is huge with its center, downtown, and it grows out to Whittier, Norwalk and other cities miles to the North, to Santa Monica and other beach Cities to the West, including Venice, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach to the South of Santa Monica and North to Malibu to Ventura County to the North, All on the Western Side of the County. to the South, the County extends to the Long Beach and LA Harbors, and to the North all the way to Pasadena, across the Pacific Coast mountain range as well as the San Gabriel Mountains and across to the valleys and desert. Also to the North on the Northwest side of the County across the Pacific Coast range containing part of Hollywood into the San Fernando Valley (a huge area by itself, up through the Tahachapi Mountains into the high Mohave Desert and the Cities of Palmdale and Lancaster.

The general population was about 5 and 1/2 million then.  There were huge open spaces, and the DA’s Office had to cover the whole area,with a main office on Spring Street Downtown called the Hall of Justice and branch offices like little DA’s Offices spread out in Pomona, Pasadena, Norwalk, Santa Monica and Long Beach.  The Branch Offices included within their areas Area offices called judicial districts each  such as Beverly Hills and was populated by DAs . In 1956 the prosecutions were divided. The main Office handled all misdemeanors except those occurring in LA City where the City attorney’s prosecutors did the misdemeanors, such as DUIs, simple assaults without serious injuries and those cases designated as misdemeanors.  The area offices would handle misdemeanors where the local City Attorney chose not to get into the prosecution business such as the Torrance City attorney did prosecute for those misdemeanors incurring in its City, but most misdemeanors were handled by the DA Area Office.  I am setting the system out to explain to the reader what I was doing in my DA career from the main office to the East LA,and then the Huntington Park area offices to the Santa Monica Branch Office, back to the LA main office trial Department.

Not everyone knows the difference between crimes.  Crimes in the State of California are set out in various codes by statute, mostly in what is known as the Penal Code and are defined by what penalty can be imposed; any offense where the designated penalty is State Prison even though the defendant has his/her sentence suspended and is paced on probation, is a Felony.  All others where the designated penalty is County Jail or a fine is a misdemeanor.   In 1956 there were two types of Courts dealing with criminal prosecutions, Superior Courts where felonies were prosecuted, and Municipal Court and actually Justice Courts presided over by a Justice of the Peace. So then  there were two types of judges.  The Felony judges dealt, of course, with felonies and their courts were and still are called Superior Courts, and the Municipal Courts dealt with misdemeanors committed within their designated city areas.  The judicial system later changed to one court, Municipal Courts were eliminated and all the Municipal Court Judges became Superior Court Judges by State constitutional amendment, receiving an increase in pay and responsibility.

I opposed the merger and still do.  Not all judges are what the general public thinks they are: wise old sages.  Judges are generally in the first instant appointed by the governor. They aren’t always as bright and hard working as required, and they sometimes carry their bad habits, general political philosophy and prejudices with them when they become part of the judiciary.  By having the two court system one gets a chance to see a judge at work in the lower court and evaluate how that judge would preside over a higher trial court.  In addition the change included an over sight by the Chief Justice of The State Supreme Court, an intimidating factor in a judge’s daily life.  It hasn’t been done to my knowledge, but under the new one-court by district system the Chief Justice has the power to transfer a judge he/she doesn’t like from as an example San Diego to Humboldt.  Doesn’t really matter now as what’s done is done.  Just venting a little.

In order to appreciate what I am going to set out in the future, the different court systems, Federal and State and my ventures into out of state or area cases a little history is needed.

So here goes,

Our Criminal Justice System starts with the settlers back in the 1600s with the colonization of America. As you know, in the beginning of our Country there were 13 colonies founded and populated by the English King under a charter system.  After defeating the French, the settlers got together, fought the Revolution, won and then confederated, convened and agreed to a Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Land. So think of the various States like different countries that ceded power to central Federal power setting out what powers were given to the central powers and those not given are reserved to the independent States.  So in that formation, Congress declared among other things a body of criminal offenses all with supposedly a tie to some federal activity such as US Banks or the use of the Postal system or some connection, even if remote to federal activity.  An example would be a case of Murder where the accused is prosecuted in a State Court or convicted, sentenced to life and then paroled, the Federal Govt. could grab the guy and prosecute hither for a violation of the victim’s civil rights.The Constitution in the 5th amendment prohibits a person from being prosecuted twice for the same offense  However that means if the person was found either not guilty in a Federal prosecution the Feds can’t go after him/her a second time.  But, that is jurisdictional and if the conduct is also a State crime, then they State can go after the person for the same conduct.  What I am talking about  is jurisdiction.

You have probably heard the terms Jurisdiction and venue, and many are confused by the terms proper jurisdiction or proper venue.  Let me explain:

Jurisdiction means power to act on a set of circumstances, that is if the Court does not have jurisdiction to act, it cannot act on a cases someone asks the court to rule on.  No Jurisdiction. Venue is the proper area for a court to act.  For an example, a felony such as robbery occurred in Beverly Hills, but the DA decided to file the case in San Francisco, the Superior Court located in the two areas have jurisdiction on the subject matter but Venue that is the proper court by law is in a County preferably in Beverly Hills preliminarily and then Santa Monica Branch Office.  I actually had a case where one of the defendants I was prosecuting had previously been convicted years earlier of an armed robbery of a US post office. He was tried and convicted of the robbery and sent to San Quenton State Prison fo 5 years. He was eventually released from State Prison but did not make it out the door.  The Feds picked him up, prosecuted him for the same postal robbery and he ended doing another 2o years, most of it in Alcatraz

Two separate jurisdictions and in effect two crimes but one set of actual acts for the robbery but his crimes were against to different entities, the State of California where he committed crime against the peace and welfare of the people of the state of California on one hand and a crime against the United States.

I pause to tell you about Willard Winhaven  and his partner in crime, Ernie Lopez.  Willard did 20 years in Federal prison for the Postal robbery where he went for the first time in Alcatraz.  Once released he and Ernie met.  Ernie had a plan to get some weapons, get full face masks and rob a bank messenger of the receipts of a discount store located on South Sepulveda Blvd in West LA.  The plan didn’t work out so well for the two of them.  They stopped and prevented the messenger from leaving, grabbed the money bag, but all hell broke out as the messenger wasn’t making it easy. Shots were fired, an off duty LAPD Officer tried to intervene and got shot in the leg, an assistant manager of the store came out to the parking lot got shot and killed. The bad guys managed to get out of the area but were followed by a passing driver which caused the two robbers to stop their car and aim and shoot the pursuer through the windshield hitting him just below the eye. The victim survived, but the bullet could not be removed.   Both were convicted of the murder, the attempted murders and the robbery and sentenced to death.  When I was arguing to the jury, and asking for a death verdict, Winhaven burst out “you should get death!” I looked at the jury and said ” See, he still wants to kill.”  Winhoven died on Death Row. Ernie Lopez got the benefit when the California death penalty at the time was declared unconstitutional due to so-called vagueness; his sentence was reduced to life, and because the death penalty did not have an alternative of life without parole he was eventually released on parole, met up with a guy named Vlahovitch, a co defendant on a case where I represented one of the defendants, a capital murder case.  Vlahovitch, my client and another defendant had already been convicted of 1st degree murder, sentenced to death, reversed be the State Supreme court as to penalty only.  Vlahovitch and the other defendants after my work on the case ended up with life, being just minutes from execution.  Ernie and Vlahovitch the last I heard teamed up as enforcers for a bail bondsman collecting money owed.

You might want to Google People v Winhoven 60 Cal 2nd 223 for a complete story of the Winhoven Lopez case.  Rereading it, I found it fascinating

I will go into the Vlahovitch case later in this blog, as to this day, I believe my client innocent and I can’t wait to tell you why, but that is still way down the road.

Marshall Schulman

I don’t know what happened  You probably can guess, when it comes to technical stuff, I am still in the 1st grade, if not kindergarten.  Something happened and I was lucky to keep what I had written.  So back to Loyola:

….Ingrid Bergman as a nun in “The Bells of Saint Mary’s”  So my impression. Priests and nuns were just nice, sweet and jolly persons.  Not so.

Well, at the orientation, out comes Father Joseph Donovan S.J., a large burly man with a priest’s collar too tight around his massive neck.  With his Boston accent, he welcomed us to his school where he was the Regent with a short cryptic speech and his Boston Irish accent as follows: “look to your right and then look to your left. Two of you will not be here to graduate.”  Then he left the room.

Father Donovan was right.  My class started at- if you add the night and day classes- 150 students.  46 of us made it.  Get the idea? Loyola was no playground. It was tough and as Father Donovan related to one student who after his second year had a B grade point average, but on his final exam, he got two Ds and was placed on probation. Not kicked out because he still had a passing GPA, but he was told he had to bring all of his grades to Bs or he was OUT.  This student was the son of one of the mayors of one of LA County’s cities.  When the student complained how hard that would be to guarantee Bs on all of his subjects, Father replied “We serve horseradish with our ice cream in this school  (you guessed it, I think the student did not make it.)

No matter. I received a great education at this Jesuit School and if I am any good as a lawyer I can thank Loyola, its professors and my classmates for a 1st class education.

Lew Watnick was brilliant.  BTW, the other top students were Walter Leong, whose birth language was Chinese (Walter thought in Chinese, needed to translate to English, how about that for smarts?) and Tom Garcin (Tom was in the 101 Airborne in World War 2 where on a suicide patrol in the Snow in Europe the soldier in front of him was able knock off a few Germans and that soldier received The Medal of Honor.  They were not expected to return from their scouting mission, but the front soldier saved all their lives.)  Walter was the only one in my class that got recruited by a major firm. O’Melveney and Myers, a giant LA firm.  The rest of us had to scrounge.

I digress now to tell you what I learned from Tom Garcin.  I knew my subjects totally, property, criminal law, contracts and Torts in the first year . Did OK on the exams, got some As and Bs and Cs.  I could not understand why not top grades.  So, I asked Tom Garcin how he handled the exam questions which were as the Bar Exam as well  as essay types of questions.  We would get a fact situation on the exams and we were required to answer applying analysis and law with cases and law treatises by renowned legal authors as well as class lectures  We could type our answers or write depending on one’s skills. I typed, horrible handwriting.  Bottom line is Tom told me he never writes more than a page and one half.  So for the next exam, I sucked it up and rather than a law review type of answer, I hit the issues, handled them and concluded.  All within one and one half pages.  Guess what? Nothing but top grades from there on.  The lesson to be learned is the grader doe not want an esoteric dissertation, but wants to know if the student knows the issues and applies the correct analysis.How true, as when I taught Criminal Procedure at Western State Law School and wrote and graded test papers that is exactly what I was looking for from the student. Grading is hard and basically boring. I wanted to know does the student see the issues and if so, how was it handled.

What has all this have to do with Lew Watnick?  Lew was not one of the veterans in my class.  He was a young guy from Detroit and very smart. He had a job working for Sears and Roebucks after law school but contracted Polio, a terrible paralyzing disease which was not uncommon in those days. Well, he did recover but his vocal chords never came back.  Being the tough guy he was, he taught himself to speak by some muscle method and gained understandable speech.

As I am sitting here, I can’t recall why I contacted him, but I think when I learned of his Polio condition I wanted to see how he was doing.  By then, he found a job as a Deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles.  We talked, he loved his work.  After telling him my feelings about private practice, he suggested I apply to the DAs office.  I did, took the exam came in number one of the applicants and eventually was hired as a Deputy DA and went to work for LADA’s Ernie Roll.  ( I worked under four DAs, all different, and I will tell you about them, my DA colleagues, my cases and all kinds of interesting stuff.)  But the above is enough for now.

Bye for today

Marshall Schulman

I will eventually get to the DA’s Office, but let me take you to what was happening before that time.

Well Stan died and I was left alone  Ralph Dixon was advancing rapidly in his company and my business with his company increased as well. I moved to an office on La Cienega just South of Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills.  I was doing OK but not very happy in the practice.  Suing poor people for debt, taking their household furnishings which were pledged to secure the debt; handling divorces with all the acrimony that goes along with marital dissolutions where generally one spouse is really “pissed off” at the other, fighting for child custody, dividing the community property and worst of all, the other lawyers.  Other lawyers were untrustworthy liars and any deal had to be in writing or one would get a good stab in the back.  Clients ruled and as the best source of referral of other clients, many lawyers would do anything to make the client happy.  I felt stuck in a profession that offered to me no satisfaction.

Lew Watnick was either number one, two or three in my law class at Loyola Law School. I think my class was the best class that ever went to the school.  Loyola was the only accredited school that required a written exam in order to be admitted without a Bachelors degree.  The others, such as USC, Hastings, USF and San Diego would let you in, take your money and later flunk you out, and that could be in any year including the senior year.  I really knew very little about the Catholic Church, Priests, and their general education.  Well, first day of school included orientation.  As far as I was concerned, my idea of priests and nuns was from the movies, Pat O’Brian as Father Flanagan founder of “Boys Town” a place for orphaned boys, Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald in the movie “Going My Way  Also

Earlier in this blog, I wanted to write about being a prosecutor and got a little sidetracked with my thoughts.  That’s what this is all about; writing about what I have seen and done over my almost 90 years.  So, before I get to the LA. D.A.’s Office, I would like the reader to get to know me and learn of the great changes over 9 decades.

So, let me take you to the 1950s.

Times were tough for new young lawyers striking out on their own. For me, it was work for office space, secretarial help and office supplies.

Stayed with the PI. lawyer for about a year.   One of the secretaries referred me to a firm that did gas and oil law as their prime law business and had a back log of divorce cases

They offered me a chance to handle the family law matters, but clearly informed me that, when the cases were cleaned up, I could not stay because their main clientele would not appreciate a Jewish lawyer.  Turned down the job

In those days, in the 1950s that was not unusual or unexpected. The law allowed segregated schools, restrictive covenants on deeds to property prohibiting houses, estates, property to have a clause running with the land to exclude Jews, Negroes ( that was the term used for Blacks or African Americans at the time), Asians.  There were laws forbidding mixed marriages of Whites and Asians.  Times changed with the Social Revolution, but not until the 1960s.  Today, if a married couple decide to part all that has to be claimed is “Irreconcilable Differences” and the marriage is terminated.  In the 50s, in order to get a divorce there had to be grounds and proof of those grounds such as Adultery, extreme physical or mental cruelty mental health such as insanity and so on.  Not only must the person seeking a divorce  prove the grounds, but there must be corroboration through an independent witness or other evidence to get relief.  And, the spouse responsible for the destruction of the marriage contract is going to have to pay through the nose in alimony support and the division of the marital property. Today alimony is not so easily given and marital property is divided equally regardless o fault. I digress, sorry.

Well after about one year, I switched offices and went to work for an attorney for the same structure; work for space. The difference was location, The Taft Building located at the famous intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and Vine St. My father, Leo Schulman, migrated to California in 1921 as a young medical doctor, and his office was in The Taft Building, as well as Dr Ruth who was the UCLA Team Doctor, as well as the doctor who treated me for a skull fracture when I was 2 years old.  Interesting coincidence.  Later I will relate the very sad story of my parents, their marriage, divorce, addiction.and how a person and family can be on top of the world one day, and when tragedy occurs, how it all goes to shambles. I want to save that story for later.

Stan Levinson was a graduate of the first UCLA law class, a class of only 50 hand-picked students. UCLA first started their classes housed in Quonset Huts, but by 1949 had a very nice Law School Building.  Their professors were of renown.  I used to use their library for studying for the Bar Exam and met most of the UCLA class, as well as we were taking the same Bar Review class preparing for the Bar Exam.

I must say I was well prepared and aced the Bar Exam. I thought the Loyola Law School Exams were a  lot harder.

Stan was also sharing space for work in the Hollywood Office. We knew each other from the Bar Review course and my study time at UCLA law library.  We hit it off. Stan had some business type clients, including collection agencies, debtors and general business, such as creating corporations, drafting wills, divorces and the general stuff that pays the rent.

We decided to become partners. Moved to a location on Crenshaw Blvd. renting a desk and some very little space for an old Underwood Typewriter for drafting our pleadings.  We were doing OK and our firm started to make some money, enough to pay our bills with a little extra. I should mention the space was also held by two CPAs  Good guys and one became a personal friend.

Stan served in the US Army Infantry in Europe during World War II.  His feet were frozen with frostbite.  As a result he later contracted a terrible skin condition consisting of blisters eventually throughout his body.  Stan had to go to the VA Hospital and never left. He died there. a very young man.

When Stan went into the VA Hospital in West Los Angeles, I then had to do the work of two, drafting pleadings, going to Court and everything else required of a two-man firm. It wasn’t easy, started grinding my teeth to the extent a dentist created a mouth-guard so I would not lose my teeth by grinding, and I wear a mouth-guard to this day as a result of the grinding.

I had put a client who was way over his head in debt through bankruptcy. Then, one day Ralph Dixon came to my office on Crenshaw Blvd between Olympic Blvd. and Pico Blvd, introduced himself as the supervisor of some small loan offices and said, look your client submitted a false financial statement, not listing all of his creditors, and thus the bankruptcy cannot discharge the debt under California and Federal Law.  I stalled in order to research. Ralph Dixon was 20 years my senior and had graduated from Ohio State University Law School at the height of the Depression. No law jobs. So, he took a job as a loan officer to pay the bills.

He was right and we worked at a re-institute of the small loan. Later, Ralph approached me wanting to know if I was interested in representing his 8 or 9 stores and, if so, would I prepare a fee arrangement covering the charges for the different stages of collection from a demand letter to a pleading to a court appearance.  I did, and Ralph got permission from his supervisor to hire me.  This was the beginning of a long term relationship, from his growth from Supervisor of a few offices to area supervisor to eventually vice president of the company to in 1965 and his retirement to practice law in Santa Ana, California where he joined with a lawyer who had left the LADA’s Office to venture into private practice in Orange County, California.  The name of the new firm was “Schulman and Dixon” Attorneys at Law. More to come particularly “Why a DA?”

Marshall Schulman

Well the following day, I appeared with my client in  downtown LA at the boxing commission headquarters.  The prosecution tried to present evidence to show my client was not the Boxing Champ’s true manager/trainer.  I was just a green lawyer, but I knew the law of evidence like the back of my hand.  The prosecution got nowhere.  Every objection I made was sustained.  Looked like I was going to win.  Boy, was I naive.  The opposition asked to come back with more testimony the following day.  Leaving the building, someone, who I don’t remember, sidled up to me and said “The Babe” would like for you to come to his apartment tonight to discuss the matter, and gave me an address to an apartment house located mid LA, very nice neighborhood, and I did, that evening.

I arrived and at the reception desk there sat a tough looking guy who greeted me thus: “Whose Youse?”  I said I was there to meet with Mr. McCoy and gave my name and was OK’d through to his rather nice apartment.

Inside was a real cast of characters. First there was  Babe and his daughter to greet me,  Cal and Aileen Eaton, the then very famous San Francisco criminal lawyer, Jake Eirlich who had written a best-seller “NEVER PLEAD GUILTY” representing Babe; and the Eatons’ son, who was incidentally Governor Goody Knight’s son-in-law.Babe was very large, an impressive figure, one not to be crossed. I was really impressed by Jake Eirlich, elegantly dressed in his tailored blue suit, striking white shirt, spit-shined shoes and his traditional red rose bud in his lapel. The Eat0ns were quiet during the whole discussion, but ended up on top of the world.

After the usual niceties, they got down to business. The subject was that basically Babe was going to go down, i.e lose, but would still be behind promotion, the Eatons would become the promoters of the Olympic Boxing Arena, and my client was going to lose, but will be allowed  to return after a period of suspension and continue to train and manage fighters.  The impression I got was don’t fight so hard. Quit fighting this thing. I said I would not go along with the program and left the apartment.

What did I know.  Like Don Quixote, I was tilting at windmills. Next day, I could not get any objection sustained, all the hearsay evidence was allowed, and, as predicted, the evening before, Babe lost his promoter’s license, the Eatons took over running the Olympic Arena. Mel, AKA Harry Kabakoff, got a short suspension and went back to managing and training fighters and all was well with the world. My lasting impression from this incident was fights were fixed and who wins or loses was decided in New York. A lot of new stuff for a naive young lawyer who never had encountered the real world of boxing. I used to be a fight fan, but never went to another boxing match after this case.

Mel was a good manager and became fairly well-known  His specialty was going to Mexico for talent and some of his fighters were champs such as bantamweight Jesus Pimintel. Mel AKA Harry Kabakoff died at the age 0f 82 in 2009.

Aileen Eaton became famous for her boxing and wrestling promotions and was named into The International Boxing Hall of Fame.

I got some local newspaper publicity, and I guess Mel thought that was enough.

If the reader wants to learn more one can google the names and read about the investigation in more detail

Even though there was no fee for my work on the case, I really enjoyed the adventure.

Speaking of fees for work I think I will touch on that subject later on in this Blog if and when the subject comes up

Marshall Schulman